Pointy eggs and whales (Evolution)

by Balance_Maintained, U.S.A., Monday, September 03, 2018, 01:11 (107 days ago)@ David Turell

DAVID: The gap is because the body types don't follow in any way. Quoting a Darwin site carries the message, "they must have evolved", without any semblance of proof. Typical Darwin declaration without thought and you present it, but do you believe it?

dhw: The gap is because the body types don’t follow in any way. “An unknown, unknowable, sourceless designer we call God must have created them out of nowhere.” Typical theist declaration without any semblance of proof, and you present it, but do you believe it?

I don’t think you have ever quite understood the reason why I am an agnostic. The explanations of life’s history offered by both theists and atheists are so full of Cambrian-style gaps that I cannot place my faith in any of them. I look for alternative hypotheses, such as cellular intelligence and a form of panpsychism, though even these are too tenuous for me to believe in. The Cambrian is a mystery that nobody has yet solved. Like yourself, I do believe in common descent, and if I believed in your God (and I do not disbelieve), I could certainly contemplate the possibility of a dabble, but I do not find that any more convincing than your God endowing organisms (cell communities) with an autonomous inventive intelligence of their own to create the innovations that mark the Cambrian. This hypothesis preserves common descent and explains the speciation gaps – but I recognize that it too has a massive gap: the lack of evidence that the intelligence of cell communities can extend beyond adaptation to innovation. That is why I keep emphasizing that it is a HYPOTHESIS, not a belief.

Tony:Just a thought, but what seems to be missing in this thought process is 'purpose'. Evolution requires no purpose, and offers no meaning. I think something deep in humanity rejects this purposeless idea of existence. Yet we do not extend the idea of purpose beyond our own existence to say, what is the purpose of everything, not just our purpose. We can recognize the need for a designer to account for the complexity, but forget that designers do not design without purpose.

David: I've constantly brought up the issue of purpose and the need for a designer.

Aye, but it was in response to DHW's post.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.